


Halfway Across the Moon

by orchis



Category: Star Wars - All Media Types, Star Wars Episode VII: The Force Awakens (2015)
Genre: Comfort, Domestic, Insomnia, M/M, Post-Canon, Post-War
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-03-02
Updated: 2017-03-02
Packaged: 2018-09-27 21:32:01
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 864
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10051511
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/orchis/pseuds/orchis
Summary: It's late and, despite his exhaustion, Poe can't sleep. A post-canon ficlet on how love helps Poe deal with the wounds the galaxy has given him, for galacticproportions.





	

**Author's Note:**

  * For [galacticproportions](https://archiveofourown.org/users/galacticproportions/gifts).



> I wrote this prompted by galacticproportions. The prompt was "Just stay with me." Many thanks to gloss for her encouragement, and to galacticproportions for being herself, and for her friendship and love. <3

It’s night time in the ship, and Finn is sleeping, breath even, deep, calming like the sound of waves gently licking the beach. It reminds Poe of when his parents took him to the sea for the first time, and how the murmur of the waves lulled him into sleep at night.

He can’t sleep now, though. It’s probably just stars lag; it’s not uncommon for people who travel great distances in space, their bodies not used to sleeping anymore, to shifts or rhythms. Poe had to change the structure of his patrols with the Republic for the whims of conflict, thrown out of bed whenever the war demanded it, only getting rest when his body couldn't postpone it any longer.

(And respites, here and there, that only served to remind him of how much his body had forgotten peace and normalcy.)

Unlike Poe, Finn adapts easily to these things. He’s so much more in tune with his body’s needs. Finn doesn’t forget to eat or has to be ordered to bed.

(He wakes up, sometimes, covered in sweat, shaking; sometimes he can’t fall asleep either, haunted, like Poe, by what lies in the vastness of space, in the emptiness that swallowed chunks of their hearts.

Not tonight, though. Tonight, Finn sleeps.)

Poe shifts, uncomfortable. The sheets feel like fire against his skin, Finn’s body a furnace. Most of the time he really likes it, but when he can’t sleep, the heat in the room, in the bed, under his skin, is unbearable.

He tries not to disturb Finn but ultimately fails. When he sits up, Finn stirs, rolls to his side, searching for Poe, skin glowing dimly under the orange safety light.

Poe stills, feet on the floor and palms flat on the mattress at each side of his lap, ready to stand up, heart hammering. He doesn’t want Finn to wake up, not when he’s finally getting a good night of rest. But it’s too late now.

“Poe?” Finn whispers, voice hoarse.

“Hey, love,” Poe whispers back, reaching to touch, to gently squeeze Finn’s shoulder for a second. “I’m going outside, I need some fresh air.”

Finn frowns, gaining awareness. “You okay?”

“Yeah, yeah,” Poe says, and it’s true, really. But the war changed the meaning of okay. “I just need some air…”

Finn stirs some more, yawns, “Shit, it’s so hot in here.”

There’s sweat on his brow. As Finn yawns and stretches, Poe sits there, annoyed with himself, and it isn’t until a drop of his own sweat stings in his eye that he realises he’s melting, too. He blinks, rubs his eye, and suddenly Finn is at the other side of the room.

“Ah, the thermostat is fucked. It says 20, but no fucking way…”

Finn fiddles with it, and soon enough there’s the sound of the fans, cool air blowing from every direction. Poe doesn’t even shiver; he welcomes the breeze, just sits there.

Finn walks back to the bed and bends over to touch the mattress.

“Oh, gross, we must have been sweating buckets.” (Finn hates the heat. It reminds him of Jakku.) “Help me change the sheets?”

Poe nods and finally stands up from the bed to get a fresh set from the cupboard while Finn strips the mattress. The air is starting to feel cleaner, it’s easier to breathe. They give themselves entirely to the task for a few minutes.

When Finn has finished balling up the sweaty sheets and fed them into the laundry duct, he gets back into bed, already yawning. Poe’s skin is starting to resent the breeze, so he lies down too, not quite sleepy, but comforted.

Finn throws an arm over Poe’s chest, moving closer. He draws his knee up to rest on Poe’s thigh, nuzzles his neck and presses his lips there once, twice.

“Talk to me?”

“I’m so tired, Finn,” Poe whispers, and he feels it, deep in his bones. “And I can’t sleep.”

Finn doesn’t say he’s sorry, doesn’t say just close your eyes - count to a thousand, list in your head all the pieces of your X-Wing’s engines. He just reaches for Poe’s hand, holds it.

“You should go back to sleep, don’t mind me,” Poe adds.

“Nah,” Finn says. “I’m cool. Just stay with me. Talk to me.”

“About what?”

All he can think of is the space between celestial bodies, and how there’s nothing there but the pieces that Poe and Finn and everyone they know have given to the galaxy.

“Tell me about the time your dad took you on a hiking trip towards the beach, halfway across the moon from the ranch.”

Poe smiles, despite himself, at the memory of he and Kes walking through the jungle, ten days of hiking until they reached the beach, then ten days back. They could’ve taken a speeder, or anything, really, but they liked walking, tracing animals and sleeping under the canopy of the trees. They saw so many orchids and Poe wanted to take them all with him, fill their house with flowers to make up for the voice of his dead mother.

“Poe?”

Poe breathes out. He kisses Finn’s forehead and starts talking.


End file.
